13 / 2016-05-15 11:36:23

A vibration energy harvester based on magnetic levitation for wireless sensor networks

vibration energy harvester,magnetoelectric transducer,magnetic levitation,wireless sensor networks

A vibration energy harvester employing a magnetoelectric (ME) transducer is presented for wireless sensor networks. The harvester adopts a magnetic levitation unit and springs to convert ambient arbitrary vibration into the motion of the central suspending magnet. The suspending magnet moves relatively to the ME transducer. The ME transducer undergoes magnetic field variations and generates power output. Experiments have been conducted to verify the feasibility of the device. For a vertical acceleration of 1g at 11.6Hz, the harvester can produce an output RMS voltage of 50.75 V and a maximum power of 515.2 μW with a matching load resistance of around 5 MΩ. The results demonstrate the application prospect of the device in energy harvesting when applied to wireless sensor networks.